Regal Beloit Acquires Ramu, Inc., a Technology Company Backed by Khosla Ventures

BELOIT, Wis., April 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Regal Beloit Corporation (NYSE: RBC) today announced that it has acquired Ramu, Inc., a motor and control technology company headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, backed by the venture capital firm Khosla Ventures.

Ramu, Inc. is a start-up company founded by Krishnan Ramu with a research and development team dedicated to the development of switched reluctance motor technology.  Switched reluctance technology is a unique motor design that is suitable for applications requiring improved operating efficiencies, high operating speeds or high ambient temperature conditions.  An additional strategic feature of switched reluctance is that it does not utilize permanent magnet materials to create the operating torque of the motor.

Ramu, Inc.'s current management and technical leadership will continue to lead the research and development efforts at Ramu, Inc., which will remain headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia.  This team will be focused on expanding Ramu, Inc.'s current portfolio of multiple patents and patent applications as well as integrating this technology into Regal Beloit's broad motor portfolio for commercialization across multiple Regal Beloit brands.  

According to Henry W. Knueppel, Chairman and CEO of Regal Beloit, "We are very excited to announce the acquisition of Ramu, Inc. The company's innovative and talented R&D team is an important strategic addition to our global technical resources. We see potential differentiated value for our customers if we are able to successfully integrate this technology into our energy efficiency motor portfolio."    

Ramu Inc.'s technology remains in the development stage, and its business historically has not realized operating revenue.  

About REGAL BELOIT CORPORATION:

Regal Beloit Corporation is a leading manufacturer of mechanical and electrical motion control and power generation products serving markets throughout the world.  Regal Beloit is headquartered in Beloit, Wisconsin, and has manufacturing, sales, and service facilities throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia.  Regal Beloit's common stock is a component of the S&P Mid Cap 400 Index and the Russell 2000 Index.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

The following is a cautionary statement made under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: With the exception of historical facts, the statements contained in this press release may be forward looking statements.  Forward-looking statements represent our management's judgment regarding future events.  In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "plan," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar words.  Actual results and events could differ materially and adversely from those contained in the forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including: actions taken by our competitors and our ability to effectively compete in the increasingly competitive global electric motor, power generation and mechanical motion control industries; our ability to develop new products based on technological innovation (including our ability to commercialize the technology acquired from Ramu, Inc.) and the marketplace acceptance of new and existing products; fluctuations in commodity prices and raw material costs; our dependence on significant customers; issues and costs arising from the integration of acquired companies and businesses, including the timing and impact of purchase accounting adjustments; difficulties consummating the pending acquisition of the Electrical Products Company of A.O. Smith Corporation that may have a negative impact on our results of operations; our dependence on key suppliers and the potential effects of supply disruptions; infringement of our intellectual property by third parties, challenges to our intellectual property, and claims of infringement by us of third party technologies; increases in our overall debt levels as a result of acquisitions or otherwise and our ability to repay principal and interest on our outstanding debt; product liability and other litigation, or the failure of our products to perform as anticipated, particularly in high volume applications; economic changes in global markets where we do business, such as reduced demand for the products we sell, currency exchange rates, inflation rates, interest rates, recession, foreign government policies and other external factors that we cannot control; unanticipated liabilities of acquired businesses; cyclical downturns affecting the global market for capital goods; difficulties associated with managing foreign operations; and other risks and uncertainties including but not limited to those described in Item 1A-Risk Factors of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 2, 2011 and from time to time in our reports filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or to persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the applicable cautionary statements.  The forward-looking statements included in this presentation are made only as of their respective dates, and we undertake no obligation to update these statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Website:  www.regalbeloit.com

SOURCE Regal Beloit Corporation